Familial Ties
by sakurablossomhime
Summary: Vincent could never fathom who had sought to bless him with such gifts and and make them ten fold. This tale speaks of how a man that had such self-loathing due to guilt could be redeemed and gain all that was lost in the wake as well. After all, with any family tree it has to start somewhere.
1. Before the Happily Ever After

The whole group gathered around the soon to be parents in a comfortable two room, in-suite birthing room at the WRO headquarters infirmary. Gone was the blaring white everything and cloying disinfectant smells that wrecked the nerves of so many when thinking of clinic setting-anyone that had had experience directly with Hojo in the past that was. But that was then and this was now. The WRO had changed a lot of things. They had changed for the better; the world had as a whole had. Now what would have been unheard of was happening and everyone couldn't have been happier or more excited. There were so many there and many more waiting by the phone for the new arrival.

Cloud and Tifa, now already a comfortable, married couple, and the ones closest to the expectant couple, decided to stay and aide in the birth if only to be comforting to the atmosphere. Cloud and Tifa flanked the female as she bore down, with Cloud on cool towel duty for her forehead and Tifa to be a constant comfort while she held the young woman's hand and coo her praise on how well she was doing. Even the doctor attending the birth had a vested interest (excitement) with this birth as well.

Cid, Barrett, and Reeve holding a plushie mog for baby to be, Rufus and his Turks starting with Tseng respectively, Rude and Reno, and last be never least Elena in tow patiently waited in the second room for news. Eventually Yuffie had taken to waiting outside in the second room with everyone else as well for the couple's and her own comfort, especially when she started to turn green and as things became more…wet and more colorful.

The soon to be father's unnerving neon glare didn't help either as it declared _GET OUT_ as he continued to support his wife with her back against his chest and he massaged her shoulders and while his face as always never showed it, he felt he might just faint on the spot. He'd never done this before and he was so nervous though his stony face would never convey that but he continued to offer what support he could for her. He did not have time for the little ninja at this moment being childish.

Yuffie was out of their like a rocket and into her fiancés presence. Rufus merely gave a meaningful smirk and wrapped his arm around his finicky wife to be for comfort. Thank Leviathan they weren't in a rush for heirs for either of their 'empires' so to speak, Yuffie thought. She definitely was just not ready at this time.

The strangest of the guest that had chosen to stay with the couple seemed to almost blend in with the shadows in the corner of the room and that was Vincent. He fidgeted in his own way in that he was not stone still in that corner; close enough to the father-to-be to reach out and touch his shoulder if need be. It seemed so odd yet it seemed right for him to be there.

It was so surreal how they had gotten to this point in time. He'd remembered it as if it had been just yesterday…

Vincent violently jerked awake; Lucrecia was calling him. His heart was pounding and he was covered in sweat. He felt different, somehow lighter. He looked down at his chest and noticed that the normal telltale healed gunshot wound-was gone. Vincent was up and over to the small washroom and looking into the mirror, obvious shock and amazement in his eyes. While he still looked to be twenty-seven years old, the normal pallid coloring he'd adopted from the experiments done to him had been replaced with a more even strawberries and cream complexion, belaying healthy life. Where the multiple cuts and ill healed wounds were, now healed flesh covered every inch of him. His carmine eyes looked over to his claw. There was a niggling in his mind to try to remove it, to check the flesh below. While he wasn't sure what was going on, what Lucrecia had called for, he hoped with all his heart that the last area that Hojo had scarred would be gone. He slowly begin unclasping the bearings on the main arm. He began sliding it down and off. Once the golden claw was removed, next came the black glove that also covered the arm. He began slowly pulling it off. As it was pulled down, more beautiful unmarked flesh was coming up. Once completely removed, Vincent just looked down at the pristine arm and his eyes instinctively welled up. He weep tears of joy. As he sat still looking at his reflection, he heard Lucrecia in his waking moments.

She had been frantic in the message but it had been clear. She'd been judged by the Cetra and had been with him throughout Deep ground and the Omega Crisis. After Chaos had returned to the planet…

That evil creature had become something of an ally at the end. He actually missed him, the others not so much.

He'd returned to Nibelheim to the mansion that he had remodeled should his friends visit but more so to just seek rest and respite from it all.

She had told him a many of things in his waking dream, some things he felt actually heart-breaking and others not hard to believe given certain circumstances that had arose but had made his guilt flare to the maximum. Before he could begin to lament, Lucrecia told him some earth shattering information that was-but was not. He had a mission and with his garb and signature cape back in place and Death Penalty holstered he was on his way.

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	2. Sephiroth's Repurpose

_**Eight Years Prior In the Lifestream**_

 _After the last battle of Advent_

 _I can hear a feminine voice; very calm, non-threatening, nothing like the demanding, screeching, and grating voice female voice I'm used to._

 _I am surrounded by a warm welcoming feeling._

 _I open my eyes and the same blue-green composition that compose my very eye color itself, sans the slit pupil of course encompasses me._

 _It is a curious feeling as I have never felt it beforehand, how I know this is the emotion that should be felt at this time is uncanny._

 _I am swaddled in it, held close to the very bosom of the planet. I am so very, very tired._

 _I have failed and been played a fool again by my moth-_

 ** _She-it is not your mother_**

 _Who are you? Who are you to tell me who Jenova is-?_

 ** _That creature a parasitic being from another planet. I should know as I am the one who researched and went along with my horrible misguided husband Hojo to allow for experiments with it. I am the one who bore you…allowed such an evil trifling thing to be thought of as your mother._**

 _I demand you show yourself to me! What is this nonsense you speak and how is it you know of Hojo…and of Professor Gast?_

Something in my heart pained me at the mention of the Professor...

 ** _As I stated, I am Lucrecia Crescent. I was Hojo's assistant and his wife in the Project S program and I am your birth mother. We experimented you in utero even before you'd taken your first breath outside the womb; such selfish and misguided parents._**

 **The words cut deep and got his attention, though he loathed to admit it.**

 **** ** _About time Professor Gast and I found out what sinister entity we were dealing with, Hojo already knew and had been overtaken mentally by her, being promised praise and popularity at the hand of his own wife's safety and still continued to move forward, making me further physically ill to the point of having you early; I only held you in my body 7 months._**

 ** _Jenova taunted me ruthlessly, stating that I was weak, that she would take my over to rule the planet and use you to repopulate the planet with her kind._**

 ** _She knew of male/female and she was definitely sentient enough to know about familial relations and how they were taboo. She didn't' care because humans were to be annihilated and she knew that you would be more than just human and even her cells, and she goaded she was eternal, she would wait._**

 ** _Not ever wanting that evil able to inhabit another body as even 'she' telepathically admitted the form she has was once a Cetran woman she overtook. I locked myself away._**

 **** ** _I …I left you because I knew my conscience was fading because of mako poisoning._**

 **** ** _We didn't…well, I am sure Hojo knew as a byproduct of carrying you and your direct link to' her', this caused this serious of case of mako poisoning._**

 ** _I...I'm sure I wasn't meant to survive, purely incubate you to you were ready._**

 **** ** _If I didn't lock myself in the pure mako stalagmite 'coffin' as I did, there would have been nothing left of me but it, much like "she" did with that poor woman, and with you, after your first and second "deaths"._**

 **** ** _I am so sorry Sephiroth, my son…He'd warned me, told me this was an evil, terrible thing I was doing to you…to us._**

My resolve was wavering…this woman looked haunted, equally tired.

 _I won't be lied to. My mother was thought to be a Cetra, but they were wrong she was something more, she was –_

 ** _A human, nothing more I am your mother nothing will change that._**

At that a female with long chestnut hair down to her waist wrapped in a yellow scarf appeared in a white dress. I looked just like the male version of her…right down to the eyes with the exception of the slit pupils, which I assumed was a part of my 'experimentation' along with my hair coloring and overall pigmentation. Otherwise, the similarities were unnerving.

 _Explain._

My command came out hushed and shaky at best and my anger and ire at this point had fizzled completely. A General does know when he is beaten and when it is time to listen to terms of surrender so to speak.

 ** _I carried you in my womb. I selfishly and willfully used you for the project and allowed my wayward husband to experiment on both of us. Then one day, someone very close to me words came back to me, stating that what I was doing was morally wrong and by then I had saw you on the ultrasound scan multiple times and had to agree. I already loved you, the wrong emotion for one's so called 'experiment'. I was in way to deep and I was dying, never to see my son. I cried daily until you were born, almost like a harbinger of what was to come. You were taken from me immediately after, never to lay eyes on you as a babe. Do you know I even had visions from this creature of your eventual insanity at its hands as grown man? All of it, all of it is my fault! What kind of mother cannot shield her child from that kind of pain? I am so sorry Vincent! You warned me I would reap what I sowed and I turned away, for the last time. Goddess, Sephiroth please believe I am so sorry for all that has happened to you!_**

Though they were in the life stream, Sephiroth could see that the woman, Lucrecia, his real birth mother, was borderline wailing her pained cries for her sins as it cut her deeply. Seeing her face on her child undid her so.

He didn't know how to respond as emotions was definitely not his expertise, just remembering Nibelheim's example actually brought an embarrassed flush to his angular cheeks. He would have laughed had it not been such a waste of life for absolutely nothing. The one he'd been calling a puppet all this time; mocking and baiting and making his every waking moment a living nightmare. He was the true puppet of them all. The ultimate one who'd been manipulated, even before birth. He'd laughed, cried, and screamed all at the same time had it not fueled the flames that he was … unwell mentally. He'd had been insane from these lies that had been fed to him and the lives, yes plural, lives he'd lost in some faceless, nameless, baseless charade of a campaign against the very world itself.

Despite that all, he seemed lighter though for this information. It was like he was breathing for the first time. Seeing things clearly and crisp for the first time as well. Another voice told Sephiroth to reach for her as she continued to weep silently, shaking like wind-beaten tree. He proceeded to wrap his arms around her. He complied with this hidden muscle memory, this want to comfort, though his facial features didn't change by much, he did proceed to hold the woman until she calmed. In the calming depths of the Lifestream, there he began to heal a little at a time. He'd found due to the experiments done on his mother, she was neither dead nor was she truly alive, more or less in a purgatory of sorts; never really able to rest. That was her penance for the time being. The Cetra had healed her as much as they could but for everything else she would be tasked to be the mother she was never able to be to her grown child, a task she didn't mind at all.

Sephiroth had found she could leave the realm, which is how she was able to communicate with the dark-haired one of the puppet…Cloud-Cloud's band of friends and comrades that had taken him down time and time again.

She'd had told him what happened to Vincent and that he was very special to her. She'd truly regretted letting him go fully for the maniacal one, Hojo.

This Sephiroth could understand, even if it would have cost his very existence. After all, nothing good came from that for the years he roamed the planet with entirely too much power for now just a man and a stain of something truly abnormal running through his veins that he literally lurked in the Lifestream. He was snapped out of his internal dialogue as she spoke to him further.

She has stated that if there was nothing more she could impart to him was that if he'd ever find someone to love as she'd loved Vincent, to not let it go. All the while Sephiroth wistfully though fat chance of someone want him in that way. He could see the lines of young women now, if he was forgiven lining up to be with the _WORLD'S WOULD BE MURDERER._

Lucrecia saw the sad, wistful look he had. Ah the power of a _real_ mother's intuition. She'd known he'd never think it would happen for him, not after all that had transpired. She had hope, and hope thus far had gotten her very far and kept her peaceful when all seemed lost. Her not pursuing her love of her life literally had cost her son's and her life. Even if there was a way that Vincent could have gotten to them both without Hojo's tyranny, she was certain he would have been the father he needed…

They both knew all they could do is 'live' for the moment of respite the Cetra had given them in their kindness since neither deserved nothing but oblivion which was usually the gift of the most wicked, denied even the melding into the Lifestream.

Lucrecia was happy to be with the child she never knew and had been twisted to never know love and Sephiroth was elated that he indeed wasn't the monster that he thought he was and had had to live with so many years ago. While Lucrecia knew what kind of life Sephiroth had had, it was wonderful to hear from him some of his more wonderful experiences in his first life, such as his friendship with Angeal and Genesis, and the one they called 'puppy', Zachary Fair that had been taken from life too soon at the hands of the same company. Time had no meaning in the Lifestream and they truly were able to enjoy themselves as Sephiroth was able to regale stories to his mother and be proud of his actually proudest moments and know the love of a proud parent back.

As they sit there still embracing, the landscape changed to that of a field of lilies, whites and yellows as far as the eye could see with an infinite white sky that went on and another female voice announced herself to the side of the couple.

"It seems you are ready" the young lady clad in pink with reddish-brown twisted pony-tailed hair binding it stated. Lucrecia lifted her head from Sephiroth's chest and smile the most heartwarming smile ever at the young woman and ran to her embracing her.

Sephiroth slowly turned and his blue-green slit eyes landed on vibrant green orbs once more as they were in life. Something inside him actually felt a twinge of guilt at the vision in front of him and what it represents. In front of him was indeed the planet's last child struck down by the false mother Jenova, Aerith Gainsborough.

Instead of shying away from him, Aerith actually drew closer to the pair as he sit unsure if he should remove himself from his mother to give them privacy. Lucrecia felt this was the time to visit the mortal plane and left them alone.

He could have almost screamed, stepped back, something…the sheer fact that he was terrified of this slip of a woman due to their history infuriated him and amazed him all at once. He was very uncomfortable but then her introductory speech called back to mind and he loathed trying to get clarification since that would require speaking to each other. Now see here he was a General and…and her sight, he found, could be just as unnerving as he'd been told his was and she wasn't even glaring.

With a small imperceptible sigh he started, "What do you mean, it seems I am ready now?" he said with question in his voice.

"I've been watching for a time, we all have, and since you've taken the news of your real existence well, I believe you are ready for more information of your lineage" she said with smile on her lips on and in her voice with not even a hint of nervousness from her.

Sephiroth was both taken aback and at the same time expecting that somewhere the Cetra would be watching, if nothing more than for his mother's safety should he not be…well of mind and heart after the news. Yes it was a lot and it would take time but in the Lifestream it was irrelative.

He'd wondered as for the first time with a clear mind of his friends were near as well or had they melded at this point into the great current knowing peace though their lives were short. As he was there he swore if ever there was anything he could do for those that were directly harmed by him and his actions or those by his mother or father's actions, or their colleague's actions, he would be sure to make good on it.

The Planet, always perceptive, was listening that day and hummed in recognition of that very wish though Sephiroth was none the wiser.

Thus with this over the next seven years, though time flowed differently for them in the Lifestream and didn't seem as long, Sephiroth spent extensive time with his mother as she came and went, he assumed to see the dark-haired man Vincent, the ex-TURK that Hojo too had persecuted as well, going as far as to do his experimentations on him, locking him in a coffin with mental beast for 30 odd years, only to not age past looking that of a twenty-seven year old .

Hojo was such a terrible father and he truly hated that the man had a hand in his conception. The women would lighten his heart though his face wouldn't show it still was difficult with emotions. At times they would giggle like friends and other times, they would be as mother and daughter. He'd even had the actual honor of meeting Ifalna, Aerith's true Cetran mother.

Sephiroth was very intelligent so this why he was very confused as to why everyone was welcoming of him despite the common knowledge of him razing Nibelheim to the ground, possibly killing his best friend, harming an innocent young woman guide AFTER murdering her father, and trying to impale a young cadet that he know had thought the world of him. And then there was Aerith… the young woman that he was beginning to feel… odd around that he'd skewered on Masamune, trying to save the planet for Goddess sakes, and oh calling meteor and calling a alien life form _mother- so very many sins…_

He'd found out that he was indeed Cetran, albeit very watered down but that with the correct training he could commune with the Planet as well. He then went to seek judgement from the Cetra much like his mother had with Aerith's approval and support. Ifalna served as Planet's counsel next to Aerith as they'd had more human contact. While the Cetra were wary, they also were willing to hear Sephiroth's plea.

Sephiroth relayed what had been conveyed to him from his mother and Aerith to him and his feelings on everything that had transpired.

The Cetra sense he was sane and that Jenova still plagued Sephiroth. As a move of good will, his Jenovian cells were inactivated as much as they could without affecting Sephiroth's health, as unfortunately she was as much a part of him as his mother and father was. Though the cells, were inactive, Jenova would forever be a part of him for the rest of his life as apparent of his hair coloring, slit eyes, and uncanny strength and intelligence. Coupled with being from a Cetran line, he was 50% Jenovian, 25% human and 25% Cetran. All that mattered is that he was one hundred percent remorseful for the lives struck down or affected by his actions. At this, a new voice joined the meeting.

Neither female nor male, the androgynous voice of the Planet itself spoken like a young child who was older than it appeared. It confessed to hearing Sephiroth's wish year's ago and actually confessed to having granted as much as it was able to. Planet elucidated that Sephiroth would find the town of Nibelheim as it was before the calamities interference. The one named Vincent had been released of his sins and also he was again whole. Tears sprang into Lucrecia's eyes. That would mean that they would be able to age and he wouldn't be burdened by the violence done to him by Hojo.

Also, the ones called Tseng, Angeal, Lazard, Genesis, and Zachary had been back on Gaia's surface for about a year or so at this point.

To say that Sephiroth was shocked was an understatement and it actually showed on his normally impassive face.

Planet went on to say it wanted to see it's children again upon it, freely able to talk to it from the surface of Gaia and would be sending back Aerith – and him. It also stated that it had given his mother Lucrecia the freedom to come back to the surface but that she would need to find someone that would be able to find them and care for them until their strength has completely revitalized.

Sephiroth knew who his mother would contact already and knew he would be honorable.

Vincent.

Sephiroth knew also why Aerith would be sent back but was confused as to why it would send him back. Though he knew now that he was of Cetra lineage, he figured he was sterile from the multiple experiments done to his person and surely Aerith or no other woman would want to be with him in a way that would produce progeny.

As if reading his very thoughts, which Sephiroth was sure it did, with humor to its tone of voice "I did say I wanted children didn't I? What better than the last Cetran couple, what better than one that has growing feelings".

Sephiroth' head turned completely around to face a prettily blushing Aerith and then back to face a knowing Ifalna. Ah so he wasn't alone in these growing feelings over this however long period of time that had past. He knew her friends would have a conniption. The meeting was adjourned and Aerith grabbed his hand that had been bare of his customary gloves since almost the beginning. Again he almost ran away. These new feelings were so strong, stronger even still for this one little flower. She went with him as they prepared to leave on their new journey to meet all those in the Lifestream that unfortunately the Planet couldn't bring back.

One by one, he sought their heartfelt forgiveness from those he'd slain along the way while Jenova wore his skin. Some forgave freely, others went with their bitterness and hatred, never to forgive, into the great consciousness that was the flow of the Lifestream. He shouldered them both, good and bad as this here was his true penance.

Finally with the last of those that had not already joined the stream denied or accepted his forgiveness, Sephiroth finally addressed his desire to _touch_ Aerith.

As he reached out to touch her face, caressing her cheek and she leaned into his hand, and finally slowly kissed for the first time. Sephiroth was actually no more than 26 years of age physically. Considering the unnatural revivals and deaths, he was year-wise closer to 33 years of age. He being bred for war from birth did not have the luxury of love. Having Aerith's attention… this was more than what he could hope for. It was a very sweet and very chaste kiss. Even with her own circumstances of fate due to Jenova, she had been taken away from the mortal realm at 19, by the very one she sought attentions from. While she had known 'puppy love' through the solider Zachary Fair, there was just nothing like this to compare it to. She too was closer to 25 years of age and all this intensity was just a new to her.

Aerith admired that about him. She gathered with Hojo continuing experiments on his body as long as he did and literally being a General at such a tender age, where did having time for a girlfriend despite being the most beautiful creature come in at? My heavens, look he even had a small blush. Cloud would have a Nibelheim cow but it would be worth it. Both began to feel the pull of their bodies on the mortal plane both hearing the Planet's bell like laugh as they prepared to wake last …

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	3. Vincent: Finding the Lost Fallen Angel

He headed straight to the skeletal remains of Midgar where the last fight with Kadaj turned Sephiroth had taken place some years prior. Deep in the bowels of the wretched, torn remains of the Shinra building was one confused ex-General of SOLIDER. With confusion comes wariness but there was no sense of insanity that he'd been known for. In fact, he seemed even, a bit scared though of course his face and body movements would never give that obviously away. Vincent's skill of reading a person was all TURK, since the apparent loss of his mind guest, that finely honed skill was all he had to go on should things turn deadly. Lucrecia was correct in how Sephiroth handled. Sephiroth actually broke the silence.

He was reserved, as his previous personality had been described by all that had known him prior to his fall, even by Cloud himself after he's allowed himself to finally heal. It had been seven years after all, since the Remnants and Deep Ground. They all had just wanted to move on. Cloud had stated that the man had been his idol and at one time he had hoped to be eventually a friend through mutual friendship of one Zachary Fair.

Sephiroth said the one thing that lifted the remaining caution from him: He knew who his real mother was. Before Vincent could have him verbally confirm her name, no matter how ridiculous it sounded, Sephiroth lifted a hand and stated that he was well aware that he was human, albeit a much modified human, thanks to his monster of a father Hojo, but that they had to be on their way.

Of course Vincent raised a dark brow at this but conceded. How he knew time was of the essence, he could only assume that Lucrecia had also been in contact with him to ease his way so that he wouldn't be so very confused on his rebirth. He was right though. The next stop was the Forgotten Capital.

They were able to catch some wild chocobos and use them to get to Kalm. From Kalm, they were able to get on a ship to get to the Bone Village. One of Sephiroth's many skills he could do is mask his real visage. It was like looking at him but not for normal humans, Vincent of course could see through the masking technique that was part of his Jenovian cells. It was more or less what allowed for Vincent to become wraith-like in battle that most thought was due to Chaos but was not. When on the outskirts of Bone Village, they went in collected what supplies they might need on the last leg of the trip, not knowing what status Aerith would be in. Once they'd past through the sleeping forest through to the Forgotten City fighting a few monsters here and there, they reached the Conch shell home and descend quickly to the Capital below. Once they had descended the still glowing stairwell down to the altar that had served once as Aerith final destination. She was kneeling once again in prayer on the altar.

The oddest thing happened in a matter of seconds. Before he could call out to her to let her know they were there, Sephiroth was on the move with his lightening reflexes and before Vincent could take aim, Sephiroth had gathered Aerith in his arms-and melded his mouth soundly and _passionately_ to hers in which _she didn't_ fight; she seemed to melt into him, even clinging slightly to his trademark harness that crossed his chest.

They met as long lost lovers, not as embittered enemies, one that had actually lost her life to the other. As if they remembered that he was there, they disengaged the kiss and Aerith had the common decency to look sheepish and Sephiroth even from the slight distance has acquired a small blush over the crest of his cheeks as he suddenly found the surroundings very interesting.

If ever Vincent had a stony exterior due to confusion or just emotions, this was this moment. He literally almost dropped Death Penalty out of shock. That had NEVER happened. Still hadn't, but it was saying it almost did. What was this? Yes, it was definitely time for explanations of what in the Ifrit's Realm went on in the last seven years in the life stream. Lucrecia did NOT divulge this little development. She did state that the planet had stated it had wished for more of its children, of which he figured, was of Cetra which was why Aerith was with them again. Sephiroth coming back wasn't necessarily wrong either since they'd found that Lucrecia's family line had been closer to the original Cetra's DNA, which meant that Sephiroth indeed did hold some Cetran blood. Irony was all over the place today. Why didn't his mind make this connection? Oh, he knew, he had killed her in cold blood beforehand…no, no Jenova wearing his skin had… This was going to be the death of him if Cloud wasn't. If Sephiroth being back wasn't enough, he being ROMANTICALLY involved with Aerith…Leviathan. God's and Devils, they were still holding hands as Vincent ranted in his mind. He swore he heard a laugh from somewhere. Lucrecia you have a very twisted sense of humor.

Aerith spoke up and her news caressed them both like a healing balm. Seems their last and final trip would be to Lucrecia directly. She as well had been forgiven and purified of Jenova.

Vincent knew it was time to make the call because this trip would require the airship and now the kids were back, the others needed to know. Gaia…what to do with Cloud?

Vincent called Reeve first. Reeve had always proved to be the quickest communicator, plus it wouldn't hurt to have the backing of Rufus and his TURKS if it came to it should something else arise. Rufus had been briefed of the situation from Reeve directly and he's promised to be waiting in the wings should he be needed. Second on the list from Reeve was Cloud and Tifa who'd settled into living together as a married couple in Edge. Vincent gave the gist of the situation. Cloud of course definitely wasn't having it so he and Tifa were coming ASAP. Next were Cid and Shera with the Sierra. Barrett in Corral was next, gathering Elmyra and the children, Marlene and Denzel who had came to visit her with him. Last but not least had been Yuffie and Nanaki who both had been in charge of ruling both of their respective areas Wutai and Cosmo Canyon. Both were very young for their species but were doing their best and had been succeeding and decided to come as well. Yuffie did say she was due to see "Ruffypoo", whatever that was. It sounded like something he automatically didn't like. It was after all Aerith that had come back. Sephiroth they figured they could take if they needed to with the rest of their friends. Thus, this is how the three were found, on the edge of Bone Village, with the Sierra floating above them with the ladder lowered.

Once aboard, Vincent walked in front of the couple. They'd unconsciously went back to hand holding. Cloud looked at Aerith with such happiness, then he saw it and his brain faltered. There, directly behind Aerith, stood Sephiroth and in looking him up and down, sizing him up he saw it, the hand holding. Cloud made a sound between a scream, a gasp, and an enraged cry as he collapsed to the floor, darkness becoming his bedfellow. Tifa helped and immediately started fussing over him. Sephiroth was audibly chuckling. Aerith mock frowned and elbowed his side, still while holding hands. He stopped audibly laughing but little fine tremors shook his frame as his trademark smirk was plastered on his face. Aerith admonished him softly while pulling him along and him allowing for it. Barrett and Cid helped heave Cloud up and to his room on the Sierra until he could wake.

Cloud woke with a jerk from the bed looking for first Tsurugi as Tifa was dislodged all at once from his lap she had been napping on while she waited for him to wake. While Cloud had rested, she too had been ready to immediately beat down the man but at seeing Aerith holding hands with him, she paused looking confused and a bit hurt because she didn't understand.

Aerith and Vincent had moved quickly gathering everyone in the what Cid called war room, which was just a large auditorium in which all of Avalanche could sit and listen to why not only was she there, why was _he_ there as well. She went over her time in the Lifestream, explaining all the details of what she had been seeing going while there and what had happened during that time with Sephiroth. She spoke of how it was found that he was indeed Cetra and that since that was the case, Jenova had taken him over at such a young age because of this reason. Sephiroth sat silently almost had a air of boredom to him, though she knew better. She knew it was his defense as all of his history was place on display again. It was obvious in the tension in his frame though his face didn't betray that. She stated that he had been completely hollowed out from the time he'd stepped into the mansion and she saw his hands ball into fist at his sides, him closing his eyes to the truth of Jenova finally taking over his body and locking way his very soul to do as she saw fit. She spoke of the multiple clones of him wearing his visage that were all from the Jenovian cells. Everyone in the room looked at him with mixed emotions from doubt to pity. He hated pity the most. That emotion, surprisingly was coming from the one named Tifa. That had been Cloud's friend and now wife. She was the one he had saw though the haze of his mind that Jenova had struck down with his Masamune when she had come to avenge her father's wrongful death. She didn't know it but what little remained of his control is what caused her to just have a thin and terrible scar and him have not had her life.

Tifa had gotten up at some point, Vincent immediately getting up as if to protect or break up any conflict. She remembered standing in front of him, staring at him with those same confused, angry, and pitying eyes. He looked up at her steeling himself for anything she might do, emotions were running high and he was definitely not a master of his, though he could mask them.

"I truly hate everything that I thought that you did. To know that you didn't actually do it, it just seems so very unfair, a cop out. " Tifa stated, "but I do understand that if my sister has found that you have truly been absolved of this, that it truly was Jenova, then I have found my peace because I know she is no more. While I cannot guarantee I will be close to you if ever since your face still haunts Cloud and me, though I know it was used against your will, I will try to remain civil, if nothing more for my two friends Aerith because I am overjoyed she is back, and Vincent because I know you were like the son he never had" she concluded and with that walked away.

Vincent looked at Tifa with gratitude in his eyes and so did Aerith and she moved to hug her and she continued to tell the group how she and Sephiroth and as she had found out Zack who had been living in Edge close to Cloud and Tifa had came back.

Tifa calmed Cloud and recounted everything to him before he could trudge off after his enemy. Cloud just looked temporarily deflated. He had known that it had to be something to it if Aerith had allowed for him to come back and willingingly be holding her hand. He just wasn't ready to see that, not at this time. He slowly came back to the bed and pulled Tifa back with him and allowed for her to just comfort his hurt feelings over it all and promised he'd face it later in the day.

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	4. Aerith:Healing Salve for the General

Back In the Lifestream

I had watched him float along the waves of the Lifestream, aimless and like a lost child. Finally she wouldn't be taking him again. Jenova was no more and just in time as his psyche, battered and bruised though it was, was still intact. The blessing and curse of Cetra is to be in tuned to all that is part of the current of the Planet. I swear his internal emotions were as raw and painful as the wails of the Planet before the healing had begun again when the calamity had struck her beautiful face causing an open wound.

I watched him, wary and curious, from afar. I knew that his mother came and went often as this was her punishment for allowing Jenova to be used on her body to produce him. He was as beautiful as he was terrifying to me. I remembered how I had been ran through with his infamous nodachi Masamune. While it didn't hurt and I had been versed who was truly in control of his mind, it didn't make it any less frightening. I maintained my emotions and so it was hard I admit as the Planet told me to let it happen, to allow myself to be struck down by him. Once it was said and done I was here, in the beautiful life giving green.

And as I purely observed from the Lifestream, Zach and I became friends. While what we had initially was what I thought was love as I was young at the time and he was my first male suitor. We became so much more suited as great friends. I found I could confide in him my thoughts and he could in me things that had happened to him as well. We often watched and looked after Cloud together along with the rest of my friends to the extent of our ability. I also loved Cloud like a brother as well. I was aware he'd thought he loved me, but at the time it was the imprinting of Zach's then emotions that he carried, not really making them true as was apparent by his true love in Tifa, his now wife on the mortal plane. We talked often and he would share stories of the great General Sephiroth…before his obvious downfall. I also found myself wanting to get to know his mother even if she never seemed to stay long in the Lifestream.

He was so restless and I sense that he was well and truly tired. After I talked to his mother and became close to her, it truly started sway my thinking on him entirely. I realized that this overall issue started…from his conception. He truly was a victim of circumstance. While I had feared him this whole time because of our bloody history, I realized that the sin started with the father and mother as well. The mother was so piteous. She was so sorry. She told of her own secrets and ones that melded with Sephiroth's. Vincent became a very serious topic as well. As I listened to the story Vincent's father, Grimoire's death at her hands and her subsequent guilt, of Vincent's and her lost love and Hojo's eventual abuse and burden on both, I started to feel something for him I thought I would never would: sympathy.

The last time Sephiroth had been struck down after my Holy Gospel spell healed the people of Edge from the last fightback from Jenova, Geostigma, I knew it was time to act. He was a lost soldier. He had blood trickling from his head, mouth, and sides. He looked terrible but it was the only way to stop him. Now I had four lives to look after. Sephiroth, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, all of Jenova, all victims of circumstance, though technically the boys were of him. The remnants chose to dissolve back into the Lifestream with the hope of maybe living a better life again, to be born again to a family that would love them. Sephiroth though. His will was so strong and so adamant to live. He was also so lost now with no Jenova to lead him since she had been in the forefront since Nibelheim. The Planet spoke to me and told me so much about him. To my surprise I found out that he was Cetra…

My mind was reeling from the revelation. I didn't know what to say or how to feel. I now was resolved that I would, with the Planet's positive reinforcement and Lucrecia's love for him as well, I wanted to try to help mend him.

After a time, I observed him back healed and aware again, albeit confused. I watched him rebuild his relationship and life with his real mother. I saw how they grew close and how happy he was to be with her. Planet then whispered something to me that I believe that neither Lucrecia nor Sephiroth was aware of but would make him that much more happy. I heard his secret plea to make things right the best that he could.

I decided enough time had passed enough where I had saw enough to be sufficiently comfortable over my initial fears of him as time was assuaging them. I, with my brethren's strength, approached mother and son and began the process to heal them.

I could feel more than see that he was afraid of me. He had never been one for facial expressions, this being due to his upbringing but the sheer panic I could feel from him in his aura was overwhelming as he attempted to back away as I spoke to let him know that we felt he was ready to be judged on his own merits.

I swear _the_ Sephiroth was about to run as far away from me as he could possibly get and just as fast seriously. I would have laughed but I could empathize with how awkward he felt since, well I had been the other party of a tragic play. Lucrecia could see that I needed to talk to him alone and that this was the first step and she bowed out gracefully. You have to love mother's instincts. There's nothing like it in the world.

If he wasn't panicking before, he was now. I heard him sigh and asked what I meant about being ready. Again I could have laughed at his boyish shyness and wariness. I went into detail about how we, the Cetra, had been watching him. I particularly had been watching him with Zach and observing him. I got to see him almost relive as much of his childhood as a 24 year old man could. I watched him perform his katas with Masamune, retelling stories from his youth with Genesis and Angeal for his mother, her in awe of his strength and how beautiful he moved. Though it wasn't drawings and hand paintings, I was truly touched. And whatever I was missing, Zach was more than happy to fill in his friend and redeemed hero's history.

As I watched Sephiroth's face register what I was saying, he started to relax further. I let him know that we'd observed him for some time, commended him for taking his existence as well as he had. I knew he was ready to proceed with learning more of his lineage and I let him know so. Though his face didn't show it, his emotions were held in his eyes and I saw what looked like determination, an oath given right then; to who the oath was based I wasn't sure. I suddenly felt a swarm feeling from Planet and placed my hand over my heart. It was a feeling of understanding, of peace radiating throughout my connection with the Planet. I knew that when Planet wanted to tell us, it would reveal its plan that went along with those feelings.

I visited often with Sephiroth after he'd found out about his Cetran background. Initially he was stoic, but I knew better. He was despondent due to more pain, the pain of being denied hearing the one voice and soothing love of the entity that he had sought to destroy. That one voice, any kindness, could have made the difference. It was all just so much guilt it was like a literal slaps to the face, each and every sin as they came and went. I had had time to heal a lot of my pain in my own way while Sephiroth's end after end, hadn't even been allow to rest in the Lifestream due to the calamities influence; he hadn't even really died properly. So much of him reminded me of Vincent's own history and the struggle with the misplaced sin he constantly seemed to atone for.

Due to Vincent's and I friendship, I was able to somehow see the man for just that, a man that had been a child that was abused turning into a teenager controlled, shaped, and owned to ultimately a young man used and finally realizing the truth of it all and the futility of it causing his mental break allowing Jenova to latch her claws into him and doing what one only could call a psyche imprisonment.

This did not mean that I came to him completely without my humanity. I had been fearful when Planet told me of what it meant to do for Lucrecia and Sephiroth based on Lucrecia's plea.

I feared he was too gone, that it had been always and completely him that had orchestrated everything. That was a very real possibility. Sephiroth was a genius in anything he did and a quick study so to underestimate him and not to be aware would be an error, fatal on that person's end. I…I feared him for myself. I knew my role but it was still very terrifying nonetheless. One doesn't just get over a borderline 6ft blade of steel piercing you. The same ethereal beauty that makes Sephiroth is absolutely hideous when manic with rage and insanity…or not him at all.

I had watched each and every time he was drug back from the Lifestream, each time he would almost just let go and almost find peace, he'd be taken again. His friends that were here and understood, mainly Zach and a sometimes reluctant Angeal, wanted their old comradery. I watched as he was treated like a marionette puppet each and every time and something about that just time started to take that fear out of me and a sadness I had never felt for anyone before took its place. I could see his aura, what was left. His was as tattered as the cape that Vincent wore around him in dark blues, greens, and blacks. He…his psyche was dying… for good this time, all that was left of his personality would be gone. I pushed my feelings aside for good after we'd talked and he'd taken his news better than well.

We seemed to talk about small things daily and I became like a second child to Lucrecia though she never sought to replace the love I had of course for my natural mother here in the Lifestream. We talked of many things. From her happiest achievements to shy love she still harbored for my dear friend Vincent, we talked and giggled, I all the while caught my gaze going back to Sephiroth with stolen glances from time to time. I even went and talked to him directly. While the need to run immediately had dissipated a lot from him, we were able to just talk for once. I could still see that he struggled to speak to me, that he still felt unworthy. He had told very bluntly it was his weakness that allowed the evil to overtake him and murder me and very matter-of-factly that if he had been a better man and not had delusions of grandeur, he wouldn't have been so desperate to seek normality after he had found he was an experiment, nothing more, causing his break in sanity (after his conversation with Genesis, on the heels of the death of his comrade Angeal whom also had affected Zach), he may have not incited to reach out to something he knew was unnatural but nonetheless took all the blame onto himself. I responded with a giggle. That broke his mask faster than I had ever seen. Pure unadulterated confusion reigned on his face. That made me laugh harder and his snowy brows pinch further downward.

I forgot that he was a General. I did. He was so heartbreakingly young to have been exposed to all that had been at such a young age. He was a General in Wutai at 14.

His no nonsense speech just made me laugh because I knew better than it being just that white and black but Sephiroth is quite literally _white and black._ Just looking at the silvery-white hair, menacing trench coat with pauldrons, complete with black buckle boots, topped off with beautiful slit-pupiled blue green eyes, that was what he was, black and white in sometimes logic and his features. I coughed a little into my balled fist to calm my chuckles and I know annoyance was on the heels of confusion with Sephiroth. I told him I knew things that he didn't even know just yet about himself but that it was not my place to share but that it had been brought to my attention. I also told to not to frown it marred his beauty.

We both froze at that one.

I had no idea where it had come from and I had gone and confused myself thoroughly and I just knew I was blushing. I immediately looked down. The funny thing is if I had been looking up, an almost imperceptible blush had taken hold of the crest of the cheeks of my beguiled victim.

It seemed as though from that one little statement things grew more comfortable from there on out. There was no more tension, just us talking getting to know more about each other. The time finally came for the judgement with the Cetra to begin. I for once was actually nervous-for Sephiroth. To us time had been but a month or two. To the outside world almost a full seven years had happened since his second fall at Meteor fall as the people of Gaia called it now. During that time I had found myself truly starting to be drawn to him. My mother noticed it, so did several other Cetra, some with hopeful looks, others still not able to move forward. I would not condemn them for the way they felt. They all had to heal in their own way just as I had even if my circumstances was a little more unorthodox since it was murderer/victim scenario in which the person that had did the murder was not truly himself. The oddest things I swear.

I'd known I'd started to like him way back when I stole glances at him. He was a truly amazing creature. He was all muscle, limbs, and sinew packed into this angel's guise, complete with a black wing. And all that hair just as long and flowy and I am sure as soft as my own if not softer…So similar he looked to Vincent. It was like he was a negative of a picture of him with his mother's eyes. They were only two or three inches off of each other in height. Sephiroth was a bit more bulker due to the experimentation but other than that…

I think, no I know I was understanding something my mother had said to me some time back when I began to observe him:

 _Given that you are to be around him and you know his true nature, you may start to have feelings for him_

That will never happen mother. He was my murderer and though I have forgiven him that and acknowledged it was not him, I just do not see that happening

 _Dear child, you do not have control over who your heart yearns for. While I know your history and I know that sin was great and I am not forcing him upon you, you've done your share for the Planet many times over, I want you to be aware of the power that your Cetran blood can do and what the benefits of being with one of your own could be._

Mother…Sephiroth is not Cetra, is he?

 _Oh my dear daughter, yes he actually is. This is why the calamity sought to use him so. Did really think his strength was all because of experimentation? Yes he may have taken some features from the evil one but you know his true parentage and Lucrecia's line was the closest left this is why she sought to control the brilliant yet weak mind of Soji Hojo, Lucrecia's late husband. She knew of Lucrecia's lineage way before he did. She also knew that there was no way that Hojo…would be a good fathering candidate either…_

Oh mother, I never knew… Was Jenova really so nefarious, so devious as to do such a thing based on her knowledge of things? No wonder Sephiroth is so very broken. I will take your counsel into heart. You have never told me nothing that is never been true and if the time comes and I find my heart swayed, I will need the resolve to continue on and you know I will stubbornly stick to my choice…and to him if that's what my heart yearns for.

 _Daughter, by your own wording you don't know it, but you are already ensnared by him. I will support you anyway that I can since I know we will try to find a way to completely make the Jenovian in Lucrecia and him inert so that they may finally have peace…and maybe the one that Lucrecia goes to all these years later will as well as all his sins…will have been absolved._

 _How had she have saw? Of course she had saw. Mother's intuition and Cetran powers combined. I chuckled again and suddenly was thrust back into the now where I sit in a field of flowers much like I had made at the beginning for my entrance. I was sitting by Sephiroth looking out at the expanse of flowers and blue sky. Our hands were so close to each other as we sat there. I was nervous but with him, I knew I would have to initiate any contact because he was still so scared that our tentative whatever this was would disappear. We both had acknowledge that there was mutual attraction and enjoyed each other's company. I gently laid my small hand on top of his larger one. He initially tensed then looked down then up at me searching my eyes. After finding what whatever he was looking for, he tentatively turned his uncovered hand and our hands intertwined and we sat and enjoyed our silence together. Every day he got more and more of his normality and life back. He'd he even gotten to reunite with Zach and that lighten his spirits even more. Angeal was a bit more reluctant due to his abandonment and also him feeling that Sephiroth left him as well. They finally also came to a peaceful understanding, true missed friendship winning out. As we continued on with our enjoyment of the moment,_ I briefly saw an excited Zach hoping from foot to foot and giving me a heart breaking smile and two thumbs up-then he was just gone!

I jumped up from where I had been sitting, Sephiroth right behind me with a slight perplexed look on his face as well but it was because of my actions. I was panicked for a second, hoping that Sephiroth didn't misunderstand as his peripheral didn't encompass Zach so he would have read it as a panic in general, worrying him in his own way. I was washed with an understanding from the Cetran feelings and emotions.

Suddenly we were joined by my mother Ifalna and she glanced down at our joined hands with a knowing look. She stated that it was time for the judgement to begin on Sephiroth that Lucrecia's be a joint judgement as she had a hand in a lot of what had transpired with the circumstances.

Sephiroth gently took his hand away and looked at me with that same determined, oath-bearing look in his eyes, and then I understood. He was silently stating he would come back, if he could to me. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than for to come back to me as well.

The trial was a whirlwind. Sephiroth being the man he was too proud to show his fear of the unknown. We knew he had to go through the trial and he was fully willing, that didn't mean he wasn't nervous of the outcome. When we both received the judgement it was to be, I hadn't known I was so vested. I am sure if I could have been faint for the relief, I would have.

Once the Jenovian cells in both Lucrecia and Sephiroth had been inert, Plant elaborated its plan.

To say I was flushed would be an understatement. I know knew what had happened fully to Zach and the others; they were alive and apparently had been living for some odd year on the surface. I had been so caught up entirely in Sephiroth I hadn't even looked at the mortal realm since Cloud and Tifa's marriage that both Sephiroth, Zach, and I had enjoyed from afar. Zach and I had even went down to grace Cloud temporarily to let him know we were just as happy for him as he was at the time.

I digress.

I knew that Sephiroth and I had become close, closer than an acquaintance and more now akin to a friend. Could he feel for me the small fledging feelings I had had over the span of time that had started to grow. Planet but this seemed wrong and yet so right at the same time! Here we were, both as different as one could be from humanity and yet still part of it. We were both forever on the edge of humanity due to our natures, Sephiroth's exceeding mine even more with the Jenovian traits in tow. His pale skin, soft silvery white hair that never tangled no matter how I mussed the ends of it intentionally, long hair…He looked like an honest to goodness angel. While I couldn't say outright I was in love with him, I could be honest and say that I was well on my way to it. He was always polite and even if we did hold hands, we'd not kissed or he made any admission that this was in anyway reciprocated feelings. He was still at times precarious as well, as if he were afraid he would frighten me away too. Always the gentleman, he always walked at my side as a second shadow, now hand in hand with me. He clearly wanted to be around me at this point, but marriage, children? Assumptions were getting us both nowhere and we would have to talk.

It was so much more than outside appearance with Sephiroth too. He had proven that he really did at some point before the madness and the high jacking of his extraordinary mind, he had had a hero's heart. He had intelligent conversation. We could talk anything from strategy to basic gardening, something I didn't even know he care anything about. It made since though in a way, the way he read and absorbed all knowledge immediately that he could and would have knowledge of just about a little of everything. He, went talking about his past life, his true real life, could recall finally the missing pieces that were healed and mended by Planet and had been able to talk about it. It was like once his memory was not severed, he could remember all people he'd ever known that had meant something or did something important for him. He even remembered finally meeting me and saving my mother and me from the labs…Though she passed afterwards I was able to be taken in by my adopted mother Elmyra Gainsborough and given as good of life as I could have ever asked for up until the end. He always apologized that he didn't know, that he couldn't somehow remember that we'd met as children, him being about 13, a year before he would be unceremoniously sent off to war and his innocence truly lost becoming the youngest General the world had seen, and me a precocious 5 year old that would be hunted down because of my true nature, also losing more of my own innocence for it after losing my natural mother to death due to the experiments done to her. Sephiroth had fought to get us out of Shinra, and she had fought to get us under the plate, where she would perish. It was all very sad but all had been said and done. Unfortunately, Sephiroth just didn't rationalize that way. Planet, Sephiroth and angst didn't mix. I giggled at this notion, being well versed of another that loved his tirades of sinsinsinangstangstguiltguilt…

I got to know more about Angeal and Genesis through him, what they meant him. I got to see through his eyes Zachary, as he called him, and all his stubborn fun loving energy we both knew. I even got to know Cloud, though Cloud was completely unaware that Sephiroth _had_ been aware of his presence since he was just a grunt at the time as Cloud would say. He would say that he always knew that even though Cloud hadn't passed SOLIDER testing didn't mean he wasn't capable else with a little mako and focus he wouldn't have been able to best him. It was his heart that made him strong and give notice to Cloud, even if Cloud didn't know it at the time. He had said while looking actually wistful that he'd planned on offering to train him some along with Zach so that he could try again.

To say I was floored with this revelation was an understatement. I had just assumed that they never knew each other or worse, they've never liked each other from the beginning but that would have be contradictory to what Cloud had said; Sephiroth had been Cloud's hero and it had killed him, if a little each time he had to kill him he came back more manic than the next.

Sephiroth told me about each and every solider he'd ever talked to, including the TURKS that he had befriended. I couldn't have guessed that he had been friends with Tseng and I could see why he was adamant to fix so many shortcomings. He had been definitely worth it to hang in there to see through to help resolve his broken mind and heart.

Now if we were to talk about his natural beauty, well that was a whole other topic in itself. That could take up pages. Make a novel actually. I willed myself to stop. I would certainly be the envy of all women that weren't adverse to him that is for sure. We both knew that if he was to be forgiven, which after Rufus's testimony and also hopefully after my friends had come to see he was better, that the masses would and could come to understand that it wasn't him, that he was as much as a victim of the old Shinra and its machinations as anyone. I had visited with Rufus from the Lifestream letting him know of what possibly was to come, and what his role was for me sparing his life as I did. This of course initially unnerved him to have a seemingly deceased woman before him, he calmed after I awhile. While I am a peace loving woman I am by no means blind to what Rufus had done behind the scenes. He for a time fancied taking up the mantle of his father and continuing on the madness that was raping the Planet of its and our source of life. It wasn't until I told him that under no uncertain terms that he too were being watched by the Cetra and if he continued his path, well, I couldn't say what safety would be for him and I was certain it would be much more worse and more permanent that the Geostigma. Well now that got him to thinking seriously about things and his welfare that he knew that even his TURKS couldn't save him from. So he conceded and stated that if Sephiroth should be brought back, he would have Shinra, albeit during his late father's control, they were the guilty party behind the subsequent mental break of the famous General and the fallout afterwards that cost almost everyone their lives on Gaia.

It was true that it wasn't Rufus's fault that things had turned out the way they did, he being a child at the time that Sephiroth was suffering at the hands of Hojo and actually none the wiser of what his father was allowing to happen to Nanaki or her at the time also under Hojo when he had come into Presidency at the hands of losing his father, which there was no love lost, by Jenova's hands. He only knew that she was a Cetra or Ancient and that his TURKS were to follow her. He had no idea really what Sephiroth and she had been through UNTIL she had in great detail told him. That settled it. He would help her and Sephiroth should he return and would provide them somewhere to live as well until they could work to come to a general consensus of what to do to introduce Sephiroth back to the world. He had confided in her that was the silent benefactor for the WRO because somewhere he knew that there was more to the story and now he had it.

We had found out that much like Zach, Lazard and Tseng had been sent back to Rufus. I was more than certain that this was helping him immensely in life. He'd get to know his lost blood relative and also Tseng, his most trusted protector.

Back this 'we' business of Sephiroth and me. I had been all over the subject and my mind had of course now fleeted back to the original subject of being sent back…as a couple. Was I strong enough? Was I able to truly transcend the false history and make new history with this man, my would be murderer?

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End file.
